Gamer Combines VR Headset With An Omnidirectional Treadmill

A company called Virtuix has shown what gamers can do when you combine the Oculus Rift VR Headset with their omnidirectional treadmill, bringing true virtual reality gaming into the home.

Click to read more ...

Microsoft Research Brings Mid-Air Multitouch To Kinect. Control Your Computer Like 'Minority Report'

Microsoft Research recently showed off a Kinect project that allows fine-tuned gesture control.  This motion sensing device is now able to read whether your hand is open or closed, bringing mid-air multitouch like what you see in 'Minority Report,' all thanks to a new development of the software.

Click to read more ...

UK University To Research Stroke Victim Recovery Using The Kinect

Nottingham Trent University is to conduct research using Microsoft's Kinect to help stroke victims.

After being awarded £347,000, the team will spend 18 months building a prototype system using the Kinect, which will provide real-time feedback to doctors and patients with facial paralysis through an on-screen avatar.

Click to read more ...

Kinect Concept 'IllumiRoom' Turns Your Entire Room Into A Video Game

Microsoft Research have lifted the veil on its latest concept named IllumiRoom, which uses a Kinect and a projector to expand video game graphics beyond the boundaries of the television, augmenting the room around it to amazing effect. 

Click to read more ...

Disney Creates Robot That Plays Catch

Disney Research have built a robot that plays a scarily humanlike game of catch, tracking the user and the ball with its eyes.  Aimed for use in Disney's theme parks of the future, it can also juggle too.

Click to read more ...

'Faceshift' Delivers Markerless Motion Capture Via Kinect

So it might not deliver the kind of sophistication in motion-capture that was utilised by Team Bondi for its ground-breaking crime caper L.A. Noire – that, after all, relied on a studio set-up with 32 high-def cameras tracking a single actor’s face – but new facial animation software ‘Faceshift’ does more than an adequate job in replicating such techniques, and it relies solely on Microsoft’s Kinect.

Click to read more ...

University Researchers Use Xbox Kinect To Control Lasers

Researchers at the University of Dundee have used the Xbox 360 Kinect sensor to control optical tweezers, a set of laser beams used to manipulate particles.

Physicists control the particles through their body movements, which are read by a Kinect-based interface called "HoloHands."  While not completely perfect yet, with a latency issue and the occasional misinterpration of the user's movements, the interface has been quite successfully tested moving silica particles.  

Click to read more ...

Mechanical Ceiling Recreates The Feeling Of Being Underwater

The natural subtleties of water's surface is one that many would not assume as up for technological interpretation. That was until artist David Bowen unveiled his installation Underwater: real-time wave patterns captured by a Kinect, and mapped to a mechanical ceiling for recreation.

Click to read more ...

Microsoft Unveils Gesture-Sensing Wearable Wrist Sensor

 

In a project headed by Microsoft Research, a team of researchers are busy putting together and testing a new wrist-mounted prototype that can track finger movement to within one hundredth of a centimetre and interpret simple gestures all in real-time.

Click to read more ...

Leap Motion Introduces Affordable Gesture Control For Your Computer

San Francisco based startup Leap Motion has unveiled what they simple call the Leap: a component the size of a thumb drive that will enable you to control your computer with gestures.  Think Tom Cruise in Minority Report and you'll get the general idea.

Click to read more ...